Cannot you, my hearers, call to mind some departed one, in whom you feel a special interest—a father, mother, husband, wife, child, brother, sister, relative, friend? Listen. Is it a father that speaks from the heavenly hills? What does he say? “Son, daughter, I once wrestled with doubts, fears, temptations, trials, as you do now; but here I am, reaping the laurels of victory. Urge your way in the path to heaven, and I will stand at the gate of the celestial city, to bid you welcome. Is it a mother? how tenderly does she say, “My dear child, I once pressed thee to my bosom in all the ardor of a mother’s love, and my prayers for your salvation, unworthy as I felt them to be, have been graciously answered; and I am just now waiting for the blissful moment to arrive, when I shall say to my Saviour, here am I and the child that thou hast given me.” Is it a husband that speaks? What does he say? “My loved wife, we were united on the earth with strong ties—death came, and those ties were severed; but other cords bound us in perpetual union, these shall never be sundered. The separation is momentary; we shall soon meet where parting is unknown.” Is it a wife that speaks? What does she say? “Husband, in girlhood and in riper years, I loved you with all the enthusiasm of my firth love. That love was ultimately tempered and sanctified by the region of the Cross, and then how earnestly I prayed to God for you when you knew it not. You loved the society of the gay and of the worldly; and when watching for your coming the midnight hour, strong cries and tears were sent to heaven in your behalf. Early I went to my grave, drooping as a frost-nipped flower, and I told you not the reason why; but in solitude you pondered, and that prayer that had been lying before the altar, and that had been baptized in scalding, burning tears, gushing from a woman’s loving, confiding, but aching heart, was at length answered; and as I looked down from my seat of glory, I saw you a penitent at the foot of the Cross; and now I bid you be of good cheer: you will soon join me in the triumphs of the skies.” Is it a child that speaks? What does he or she say? “Father, mother, early you taught me the way to glory, not thinking I should reach this blessed place before you; but my master called—I had to obey; and while you were weeping in sadness, I was singing hallelujahs to God and to the Lamb; and while you committed my clay-cold body to the grave, and mingled my tears with the clods that covered it from your sight, my soul, released and glorified, was filled with the unutterable joys of this celestial state. Come, come, I long to greet you on these blissful shores.” Is it a brother or sister that speaks? What does he or she say? “My dear brother, my darling sister, once we were intimately associated under the same parental roof. We lay upon the same mother’s fond bosom, and listened to the same father’s prayer; we read the